This high-resolution mosaic of NAC images shows Mercury as it appeared to MESSENGER as the spacecraft departed the planet following the mission's first flyby of Mercury. This mosaic resembles the historic first image transmitted back to Earth after that flyby and shows a portion of the planet never previously seen by spacecraft. The MESSENGER mission is on track to again make history and in 38 days to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury.
Date Acquired: January 14, 2008
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Scale: The diameter of Mercury is 4880 kilometers (3030 miles)
These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.